For example, as a tire constituent material such as carcass plies of a tire, etc. and other industrial materials, there is used a so-called topping sheet A, in which rubber R tops (covers) at least one surface (normally, both surfaces) of a reinforcement core material composed mainly of a multiplicity of fabric cords C as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.
Conventionally, a so-called reed screen shaped woven fabric F woven by using cords C made of fabric or the like as warp and coarsely striking thin wefts W, which serve as a connection until rubber covers, every predetermined interval in a longitudinal direction, is used as a core material of such topping sheet A as shown in FIG. 12, and rubber is topped on at least one surface of the reed screen shaped woven fabric F by a calender apparatus. In the case where a topping sheet using the reed screen shaped woven fabric as core material as it is is used for a tire constituent material such as carcass plies, etc., however, the wefts in the reed screen shaped woven fabric do not serve effectively for reinforcement of a tire and there is a fear that the existence of the wefts causes failure of a tire in uniformity, failure of separation, etc. and degrades a tire performance, so that it has been proposed in recent years to remove wefts from the reed screen shaped woven fabric and to use only cords as warps in an aligned state for a core material of the topping sheet.
For example, Patent Documents 1 described later discloses a method of removing wefts from a reed screen shaped woven fabric in a process prior to a rubber coating process in order to use cords as warps of the reed screen shaped woven fabric for a core material of the topping sheet without wefts. Also, Patent Documents 2 discloses removing wefts while forwarding a reed screen shaped woven fabric pulled out of a feed section in a calender line and then passing only a multiplicity of cords being warps in an aligned state through a calender apparatus to perform topping of rubber.
By the way, a calender apparatus 150 used for topping of the rubber comprises, as shown in FIG. 13, two pairs of rolls 151a, 152a and 151b, 152b above and below a cord pass and the cords C pass in alignment between the upper and lower topping rolls 151a, 151b whereby a rubber R elongated in a thin-layered manner to be forwarded onto surfaces of the topping rolls 151a, 151b from rubber reservoirs 153a, 153b as the topping rolls 151a, 151b rotate is topped on the cords C, which pass between the both rolls, from above and under to be made generally sheet-shaped.
In case of topping the rubber R on the cords C put in alignment, in order to obtain a topping sheet of good quality, it is necessary to hold a multiplicity of cords supplied to portions of the topping rolls 151a, 151b in a state, in which they are aligned at predetermined intervals. Therefore, a grooved press roll 155, on which circumferential grooves 155a are formed at a predetermined pitch in an axial direction, is used and brought into press contact with one 151b of the topping rolls in a state, in which the respective cords C are fitted into the grooves 155a of the press roll 155.
Also, since only the grooved press roll 155 involves a fear that the cords C get out of the grooves 155a of the press roll 155 due to vibrations and swinging of the cords C being forwarded, it is normally generally used in combination with a grooved comb roll 156 formed with circumferential grooves 156a at the same pitch as that of the press roll 155 to supply the multiplicity of cords C in a manner to fit the same into both the grooves 156a of the comb roll 156 and the grooves 155a of the press roll 155 to eliminate generation of shift.
The calender apparatus 150 requires, as a preliminary work before starting operation, the work of fitting the multiplicity of cords C into the grooves 156a, 155a of both the grooved comb roll 156 and the press roll 155 to align and set the same.
The cord aligning and setting work is performed manually by a worker but the number of cords C ranges from several hundreds to several thousands (varied depending upon a width of a topping sheet being an object of manufacture), so that the work takes much labor and is one, which takes much time and labor in manually fitting the cords into the grooves of both the grooved comb roll and the press roll to align the same,
Therefore, the cord aligning and setting work takes time until starting operation after an operation is stopped for set-up change of a topping sheet being an object of manufacture, change of rubber and a cord material, etc., and so an operation outage time is lengthened to lead to a decrease in producibility. In particular, an improvement in producibility is obstructed in the case where topping sheets of various kinds and small lot are manufactured.    Patent Documents 1: JP-A-61-113877    Patent Documents 2: JP-A-7-34379